Lazy royals? Queen and Duke still going great guns... at 90 and 95!
THEIR combined age is 184. But just a month after the Queen celebrated her 90th birthday – and two weeks’ before Prince Philip turns 95 – both were out on military duty yesterday with an energy that puts the younger royals to shame.
The monarch took to her State Review Range Rover, otherwise known as the Queenmobile, to mark the 300th anniversary of the Royal Artillery. She inspected a parade at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, and saw the Royal Regiment of Artillery’s fearsome weaponry in action during a live firing display.
Elegant in a pale pink summer tweed coat and dress by Karl Ludwig with a matching hat by Angela Kelly, the Queen noted in a speech that she had been Captain General of the regiment since she acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952.
But she had not taken part in a review of the Royal Artillery, she admitted, for 32 years. In a speech, she paid tribute to the sacrifice and service of the regiment, which lost 49,000 officers and men in the First World War, 29,000 in the Second World War, and 461 Gunners since.
‘In all the theatres of war and in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions throughout the world, you have served with great distinction, especially so in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ she said. ‘It has indeed been a demanding period, for Gunners of all ranks and for your families.’
Prince Philip, meanwhile, was attending Beating Retreat at Horse Guards Parade in his role as Captain General of the Royal Marines. Beating Retreat is traditionally held in celebration of his birthday – which falls on June 10 – and sees the Massed Bands of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines perform a magnificent pageant of military music and precision drill.
Philip, say sources, is proud the fit of his uniform hasn’t changed since he first became Captain General in 1953.